Some years ago the Portuguese government signed an agreement with other Portuguese speaking countries about the way the language was to be written, and the slow process of making it happen started to be rolled out. I was quite amused recently to learn of the number of students of English in Portuguese schools who thought that the novo acordo ortográfico -- the new spelling agreement -- applied also to English.   Continue reading...

In this week's worksheet, we celebrate George Washington's birthday with a Word Sort that helps students brush up on their parts of speech and some vocabulary associated with the holiday.  Continue reading...

A penny saved is a penny earned, or so says Ben Franklin. As part of our classroom study on aphorisms and early American literature, we take a bit of a side trip into learning about almanacs. For most high schoolers, the mention of an almanac brings about a blank expression. Yet the 200+ year old Farmer's Almanac is still alive and kicking, although the hole (for hanging on the outhouse door) has disappeared.  Continue reading...

If you see a word that ends in the suffix -ism, you can be sure it's a noun. But if you are thinking of a noun as a "person, place or thing" and you consider "a thing" as a tangible object, then think again. A word ending in -ism usually represents something more abstract -- like an idea, theory, or doctrine. Use this week's worksheet to introduce students to some words ending in -ism that represent political beliefs.  Continue reading...

This week's worksheet introduces students to a whole host of animal adjectives that they can use in their descriptive writing and add to their insult arsenals. It's so much more fun to refer to someone's eating habits as "porcine" instead of just saying they "eat like a pig," right?  Continue reading...

Lake Superior State University released its 2012 List of Banished Words this month — a collection of words they deem as "Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness." Teachers, if you shared this news with your students, however, they probably wouldn't recognize this list of words and phrases as "overused."  Continue reading...